Highway to Hell.

9-Run

Even though it was late in the morning, the tunnels were still pitch black as Jaina, Sera, Sidney, and Lou traveled through them; all except the small area lit up by the lights on the front and back of r ver vehicle. Jaina couldn’t help but feel nervous as they went back out into the city. The last time they were outside she lost most of her friends, what would happen this time?
Sera kept eyeing her hand, even though it was gloved. It had become a little sore, but no more than should be expected. It was still red, and the slight swelling hadn’t gone down any.
Jaina wasn’t able to tell, but they had arrived at the same place they had been rescued at. She only realized it when Sidney pulled along the identical vehicle that Felix had taken last night.
Sidney cut the ignition, and they were plunged into darkness. This time, rather than a flare, Sidney pulled a chem-light from his pocket, cracking and shaking it. Slowly they were surrounded in a green glow, not bright, but enough for them to see their way.
They traveled back through the corridor that led to the building, through the door and into the empty basement. Gray light shone down the motionless escalator steps, giving them all the light they needed. Sidney dropped the light to the ground, not needing it any longer.
After going up the steps they went back through the hole from which they first came. Outside they all came to a stop, Lou placing her helmet on. It was identical to Sidney’s; only hers had an electronic map in the right lens, mapping out the entire city for them, as well as their current location. With the cameras down though, she couldn’t use it to see what else might be around them.
Sera and Jaina both had their hair tied back in ponytails, enabling them to place their helmets on without it getting in the way. Meanwhile, Lou was checking her map.
“The last reading we received placed the civilian two blocks to the east of here,” she said as she pointed down the alley. Sidney went first, and the others followed without question.
“You don’t have to keep calling him ‘civilian’,” Jaina said, “his name’s Aden.”
“Sorry,” Lou responded, glancing back at her through the eyes of her helmet. She wasn’t used to using people’s names, addressing them all as sir, ma’am, survivor, or civilian.
At the end of the alley Lou led them right, the same way Felix had ran chasing the vampire the night before. The street they walked down wasn’t anything new, destroyed and aged the same as every other one they’d come across.
They stuck mainly to the sidewalk, walking around a car that had run off the road occasionally. Sidney and Lou simply stepped over any skeleton in their path, Sera and Jaina walked around them.
“This is the building,” Lou said, stopping short of the alley Felix had run down.
Sidney walked up to the French doors at the top of a short flight of stairs, leading into the building. Reaching out with a gloved hand he grasped the handle, giving it a firm shake revealed it to be locked. With ease he brought his right knee up to his chest, and shot forth his foot. The doors crashed open, a cloud of dust drifting out from them.
Lou followed up the steps, then Jaina, then Sera. They found themselves in the lobby of a hotel, a staircase along the wall across from the door, main desk to the left, and a sitting area to the right. Many of the chairs and tables were turned over and strewn about the room, evidence of a struggle taking place with numerous persons involved.
Sidney raised his hand abruptly, signaling them to stop and be silent. There was a faint, slimy, smacking sound coming from somewhere in the room. After listening a moment they heard a crunch that sounded like a bone being splintered. There was silence, and then the slimy smacking began again.
Sidney motioned for them to remain where they were as he took slow, silent steps towards the desk. He brought his gun up to a ready position, bracing it against his shoulder and placing his finger on the trigger.
Finally reaching the desk he peered over it, seeing what was making the sound. On the floor behind the desk was the body of a vampire, freshly killed. It was soaked with blood, the eyes staring blankly at the ceiling with its jaw hung open in a permanent scream.
At both of its sides were two small mutants, gnawing away at its abdomen. They looked like white, hairless monkeys with long pointed tails, webbed feet, clawed hands, and jaws that opened the same as the mutant Lou killed with Bertha; both standing about three foot tall.
The one on the far side noticed Sidney, and looked up at him with a blood stained face and chest. Its chin dropped, and its jaw bones opened out to the sides as it hissed, blood mixed with saliva dripping down onto its meal below him.
The other ripped a chunk of flesh off of the body, and then turned to see what its counterpart was looking at. Once it too saw Sidney it reacted much the same, dropping open its mouth in a hiss, the flesh it had just ripped awanglingling from its left mandible.
With the simple ease of squeezing a trigger, Sidney fired a shotgun burst at the one closest to him. A cluster of led spheres tore through the creature, reducing it to a bloody pile of mangled flesh and sending a thick spray of blood over the floor and wall behind it.
The other was sprayed with the blood as well, wasting no time in leaping into the air, abandoning its meal. It clung to the wall for only a short second before leaping again, not giving Sidney the time to fire at it. From the wall it leapt to the ceiling, and then onto the staircase. From there it made a type of low chirping sound before leaping through an already broken window.
Sidney was already on his way to the steps, “We have to hurry, the small ones usually travel in packs, he’ll bring more.”
Jaina, Lou, and Sera jogged up the steps to catch up with Sidney. At the top of the steps they went down a narrow hallway, doors lining the walls to each side. Sidney didn’t even bother checking if the doors were unlocked or not, he simply kicked them in and looked briefly inside to see if anyone was there.
Close to the end of the hallway they came to a door that was partially ajar; Sidney pushed it open the rest of the way and just stood there looking in. Jaina knew something was wrong when he didn’t move on; she walked past Lou and stood beside Sidney to see what he was looking at.
She gasped and immediately turned, placing her hand on the wall to support her as she sobbed softly. Lying in the middle of the floor of the empty room was Felix’s body. Blood stained the floor and bottom of his pants from his legs, but it wasn’t enough to have killed him. Sidney knew right away what it was that ended his life.
“Alright, lets move before more mutants show up,” he was already walking back down the hall, past Lou and Sera.
“What, what’s in there?” Sera asked, walking up to the door and looking in. “Felix… not him too,” she backed against the wall and sank down to the floor, sitting with her knees bent up.
“What about Aden?” Jaina asked.
“Don’t ask questions you already know the answers to, you know as well as I do he’s dead. If not, he’s a vampire by now, which is most likely the case. Once a human first becomes a vampire they must feed right away or die. You’re friend there was probably Aden’s first meal.”
“No, Aden wouldn’t hurt Felix. Aden wouldn’t hurt any of his friends.”
By now Sidney had stopped and turned back to face her, he was still wi ear earshot without him having to raise his voice, but he did anyway. “He’s not Aden anymore, not once he becomes a vampire. He might as well be another mutant. We came out here with the intentions on doing whatever it would take to save your friends, but it’s too late now, there’s nothing we can do. Now we have to worry about staying alive ourselves, so let’s go before—“
He was cut off when the window at the end of the hall shattered, one of the hairless monkey mutaneapieaping through and landing not too far from Jaina and Sera.
Rather than using their weapons, the two girls screamed. Sera was having a little trouble coming to her feet at first, weighed down by all the armor, but with Jaina’s help she was up and running. The two of them coming down the hall made it impossible for Lou or Sidney to shoot the mutant, not without hitting one of them.
The creature began running towards them as soon as it landed, catching up to them quickly as it bounded on all fours across the carpeted floor. Lou was waiting for it, gun aimed and ready. Just as the two girls passed by her she began firing, hitting it with numerous bullets before it fell to the ground.
Once it was down, Lou began running behind Jaina and Sera, Sidney running ahead of them. As they made their way down the hall they could hear glass shattering as more of the mutants came crashing through the windows. By the time they reached the stairs three more of the monkey mutants had emerged from rooms and began chasing after them.
All four of them took the stairs three at a time, running down them as fast as they could manage without tumbling face first.
Down in the main lobby there were two mutants waiting for them. A single shot from Sidney’s gun took down one; Lou first fired two shots, and then a final third one before the second mutant fell, neither of them missing a step.
Sidney stopped just outside the doors, as did Lou on the opposite side as him. Once Sera and Jaina passed through they slammed both doors shut and resumed running. They knew it wouldn’t do much to stop the mutants, but it would at least slow them down a little.
Sera clung the gun to her chest as she ran, too panicked to use it. Jaina held onto hers with both hands as she ran, coming to a stop when another of the mutants leapt up on top of a car in front of her. She aimed and then squeezed the trigger, screaming as the gun vibrated immensely in her grasp. The bullets started hitting the street, before moving up to blow out one of the car’s tires, then shot holes throughout its side, then blew out a few of its windows before finally hitting the target. A crimson mist sprayed back from the mutant as it toppled down to the street on the opposite side of the car with a shriek.
By the time Jaina had resumed running Lou and Sidney had caught up to her, being tailed by about twenty or so of the hairless monkey mutants. Sera wasn’t too far ahead, but far enough that if she ran into trouble she couldn’t handle, the others wouldn’t be able to get to her in time to help.
She rounded the bend of the alley, relieved to find no mutants waiting. She was just passing through the hole in the wall when Jaina, Sidney, and Lou rounded the bend into the alley behind her.
Sera was just stepping off of the last step of the escalator when the others were reaching the top of it. When she reached the maintenance door she crashed through it and continued running, even though it was too dark for her to see.
The mutants leapt down the escalator behind Lou, who was the last in line getting down it. Jaina was the first to reach the door after Sera, and held it open for Sidney and Lou. Once they passed through she slammed it shut, the mutants on the other side ramming it and attempting to break through it immediately.
Sidney cracked another chem-light, illuminating the corridor in a green glow once again. Being so far ahead of them Sera could just barely see, but the light was well enough that she didn’t have to fumble through the dark anymore.
The other three turned, as the door was struck harder than it had been before, walking backwards while keeping their eyes on it. Sidney and Lou were side by side with their guns aimed; Jaina was ahead of them, but still watching the door.
One more hit, and the door flew open, its hinges ripped from the wall. The mutants stormed in, running along the floor, walls, and ceiling. Sidney and Lou began firing continuously, Sidney having a bit of trouble holding the light and firing at the same time.
Sera turned when the door was smashed open, taking a few steps backwards before turning back around. She breathed a sigh of relief to see the two vehicles waiting to speed them away. Her calm was brief, however, as she heard footsteps coming from the dark, as well as groans.
It was too dark to see clearly, but she could just make out three figures coming between the two vehicles towards her. A few more steps and they were in the light enough for her to see what they were, undead. One was missing its jaw completely; the others had torn flesh and gaping wounds all over the place.
She screamed, backing up a few steps before finally aiming her gun. At first she couldn’t find the trigger, whimpering as she looked for it rather than where she was aiming the gun. It finally began going off, making her scream more, the vibrating almost too much for her to handle.
The sound of the bullets puncturing the metal of one of the vehicles repeatedly reached the others, Jaina turning to Sera and screaming, “Sera no!”
It was too late, the left vehicle exploded, erupting in a ball of flame that filled the open tunnel area, engulfing the three corpses and the other vehicle which exploded shortly after, the shockwave sending Sera backwards falling to the ground while she screamed.
A cloud of fire mixed with shrapnel filled the tunnel, racing in both directions. Sera couldn’t get up in time, and had the flames not died away as the explosion subsided, she would have been overcome with them. Now all that remained was a pile of burning debris, twisted metal and rubble where portions of the tunnel collapsed, completely blocking the way.
Sera sat up at first, then struggled to stand. Jaina and the others caught up with her and stopped, nowhere else to go. The mutants kept coming, for every one they shot; another took its place and advanced towards them.
“Sera what were you thinking!” Lou shouted in between shots.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to!”
“Jaina, take my place!” Sidney yelled as he backed away from beside Lou. Jaina did as she was told without question, firing away into the crowd of mutants coming towards them. Thed ond only seconds before the monsters would overcome them.
Sidney looked up where a large portion of the roof had collapsed from the explosion, a tiny spot of light shone through where they’d almost broken through the street above.
“Everybody against the wall!” he shouted, pulling a grenade from his belt and pulling the pin. He tossed it on top of the rubble, it falling into place right below the small hole.
Just as everyone flattened themselves against the stone walls it exploded, a cloud of dust and rock fragments rushing past them. Their armor blocked all the debris that would have hurt them, standing against the walls allowed most of it to rush past into the mutants.
The explosion causes a large portion of the roof to collapse atop the rubble, as Sidney wanted. It suffocated most of the flames, and gave them a hill of rubble to climb up and out of the large hole, now about five feet by three foot.
“Go, go now!” He shouted, resuming his firing on the mutants still coming at them. They were slowed greatly now, a large number of mutant corpses blocking the hall that they needed to push out of the way.
Jaina and Sera were the first to climb up and out of the hall, followed by Lou, and then Sidney, who wasted no time in following through with his plan. He pulled two more grenades from his belt, his last two, and after pulling their pins dropped them into the hole.
The four of them ran down the street, ducking behind a car as the miniature bombs went off. Once again, just as Sidney had planned, they caused more of the street to collapse into the tunnel. This time though, there was enough rubble to block it completely, part of the street sloping down into a crater created by the explosions. A car was blown back a few feet by the explosions at first, then slid down into the center of the crater, adding to the rubble needed to be moved before a path would be clear for the mutants to break through.
All four of them were breathing hard, sweating beneath all the armor they were wearing, but they still weren’t done running. Jaina screamed as a corpse startled her, crawling out from under the car they used for shelter while groaning. Before it had the chance to attack she came down hard atop its head with the handle of her gun, crushing through its decaying skull and killing it for a second time.
No one had to tell them that they needed to keep on running, they followed suit after Sidney and Lou picked up again. The street looked empty, but they took no chances.

Slowly the piece Aden had been playing drew to a close, the last chord resonating throughout the halls of the estate. He loved that piece, but not even it could bring a smile to his face now. All the whiled bed been plaything the woman stood at his side, watching his fingers dance across the ivory keys.
“My, this old piano hasn’t been played that well in years. What is your name, young man?” the woman asked him.
“Aden,” he responded simply. He couldn’t help but notice how beautiful she was, and repeatedly found himself glancing up into her eyes. They seemed to draw him into them.
“You’re new here, are you not, Aden?”
“Yes, I am. I only just awoke here, and I don’t remember much of the night before.
“Ah, less than a day old. Your human blood still lingers within your veins.” The smile that crept across the woman’s lips made Aden want to quiver. With just that one smile, her appearance seemed to shift from full of beauty, to an evil monster. Once the smile faded, she went back to the beautiful woman who asked Aden to continue playing.
“Who are you?” Aden asked.
The woman smiled again, but not nearly as cynical as before, and began walking down the steps of the piano’s platform. “Aden, I hear there’s an infant mutant prowling about the east wall of the grounds, will you go kill it for me? Wretched beasts,” the last part was muttered under her breath, and Aden couldn’t help but feel he’d done something wrong by asking her who she was. Regardless, he stood and walked down the steps behind her.
She turned off down the left hallway, and Aden went on straight to the massive door that led outside. He didn’t know which way was which, the sun hidden behind clouds so he couldn’t even use it to tell which direction was east. He instead had to walk all the way around the estate, waiting to find out what this infant mutant was. He didn’t know how he was expected to kill it, with his bare hands? He didn’t really care if it ended up killing him, at least he would be out of this hell of a world.
As if the building wasn’t massive enough, it was surrounded by acres of grass and gardeall all fenced in by a massive wall that kept everything out, as well as in. He wondered how a mutant would get over the that didn’t stand at least as tall as a three story building, let alone a baby.
He had rounded the first bend, and was halfway to the next along that wall when he heard something rustling in a bundle of vines hanging down the wall. It almost looked like a bush, the way they piled up on the ground at the base of the wall, providing a prefect hiding place for whatever it was.
Aden stood still for a moment, watching as the vines rustled back and forth again. He breathed a shaky breath before kneeling beside it, a little unsure now. He still didn’t know how he was going to kill whatever it was, regardless he reached forward.
He grasped a handful of the vines and hesitated, before quickly snapping them back out of the way and revealing the monster he was so terrified of at the moment. It didn’t look like a mutant at all, it was a baby white tiger, the only thing different about it was it had wings. Aden couldn’t help but smile as it looked up at him through big, soft blue eyes. Black and white stripes ran all the way down its bushy tail that swished back and forth behind it. The black and white stripes covered all of its body, except for its wings that were covered in solid white feathers, and its face that still had the tiger like designs over it in black and white.
Aden sat back as he reached forward, lifting up the cub and pulling it into his lap. It gave a meek growl, but began purring as he stroked along its back.
“You don’t seem so bad, I wonder if they allow pets at the estate,” Aden said as he lifted the cub, looking into its eyes. It stared back briefly before yawning, its tail continuously swaying back and forth below it.
Aden stood, cradling the animal in his arms as he carried it back to the estate. He hesitated when he heard the faintest sounds of explosions in the distance, but dismissed it and continued on.